


just like everybody else does

by Jedi_of_Books_and_Snacks



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: F/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-11-02 08:49:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20689232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jedi_of_Books_and_Snacks/pseuds/Jedi_of_Books_and_Snacks
Summary: The MWPSB's A/C is broken on the hottest Saturday of the summer and sweltering Akane takes a break to the observation deck.





	just like everybody else does

**Author's Note:**

> Written for "relief" for the Writing Feedback Network.
> 
> Fic title from ["How Soon Is Now?"](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/smiths/howsoonisnow.html) by The Smiths.
> 
> Many thanks to [NuanceGhost](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NuanceGhost), [thewrathofbombast](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewrathofbombast/pseuds/thewrathofbombast), and [sandypenguin6](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandypenguin6/pseuds/sandypenguin6) for breaking out your beta reading ninja skills. 
> 
> All errors are on me.

The elevator brought Akane to the welcomed sight of the observation deck, set high above the streets. A few yen later, and she had a canned cold drink bumping against her thigh as she walked through the braced-opened doors and into the beating sun. The Saturday cars made a sort of white noise against the backdrop of the city, the sounds of their honking filtering up from the far-away street. Closing her eyes, she stopped and tilted her head back, welcoming the breeze that tugged at her red, short-sleeved blouse and dried the minor sweat accumulating in her hairline. The cold drink met her hot skin, the condensation running across her neck as she sighed.

The last message had said the building’s A/C would be fixed “soon,” which made Kagari crack up (_“What the hell does ‘soon’ mean? Tomorrow? Tonight? After the fucking apocalypse?”_) and Kunizuka sent back a concert image of a man on stage belting out something translated to _when you say it’s gonna happen now / when exactly do you mean?_ to her coworkers. She’d been chatting to Kagari about the clip when Akane excused herself and went in search of a cold drink.

Now that cold can made her forehead chill. Which meant the last thing she needed was shade. 

Her work shoes caught on her feet and clacked against the tile as she made her way across the deck. Without her pantyhose, her legs stuck together beneath her skirt in the heat as she made her way towards a shady spot occupied by the all-too-familiar back of off-duty Enforcer Kogami. Of all things, he was wearing an old blue t-shirt and a pair of faded gray knee-length shorts over a pair of ancient slides. Lost in his own thoughts, he leaned his upper torso out over the yawning abyss. Elbows set wide on the railing as he blew out smoke, his movements lazy. As though he had nothing else he needed to be doing when she knew that wasn’t at all the case. She said his name as she drew near.

“Inspector,” he said, giving her a veiled sidelong glance. The blue t-shirt was well-fitted, old, and hugged his body as though he’d been wearing it for years. Admittedly, he probably had been wearing it for years, given the prison boundaries placed on him. Oddly, it made him look more substantial in the chest, accentuating the well-formed V of his body line to the spot where it tugged loosely at the waistline of his gray shorts. 

Weirdly, his suit made him look somehow thinner. 

“I guess it’s not cool in your room, huh?” she asked. The can was now on her lower arm, doing its best to combat the heat.

“Nope,” he drawled, “and it’s sticky as hell. Your government tax money failing to work.”

Another breath went in, and he exhaled more smoke. Eyes reflected blue from the sky and from the buildings across the street. His Sibyl bracelet acted like a lock on his freedom as it hung from his wrist on his dangling hand. He might have asked when the A/C would be repaired, but why would he? It would be repaired, or it wouldn’t. Made no difference to him, when he could only look at the world through a glass wall.

A sticky, steamy, sweaty, humid-tracked glass wall, she internally grumbled, with the cooling broken. Like it was encasing a tropical plant, or--

And then stopped herself before she followed that thought too far.

“True, though,” she shifted the can, running it over her other arm and just not thinking about the rest, “we can manage a day like this. I just hope it’s fixed, so it isn’t hot as fuck everywhere tomorrow.”

He snorted with laughter. “Inspector Akane Tsunemori . . . I am shocked and impressed that you just swore.”

“I’m all grown up.” The mild sarcasm was a direct result of everyone--and she did mean everyone--treating her like a child. She’d come up here for a break, and now she had to prove she wasn’t an infant. Again. She sighed, her fingers gripping the can. “Just wait till I say ‘shit’ next.”

(It was worse that it was _him_, especially here and now.)

“Then we’ll all know, hmm?” Kogami turned, leaning his back against the railing as his smoke trailed into the air. “That was patronizing, wasn’t it? I apologize.”

“It’s fine.” She went to the railing and leaned against it next to him, studying her work shoes next to his slides. The cool can had lost some of its iciness against her chest. “You’re hardly the worst offender.”

“I don’t mean to demean you.” The look on his face said that he took it seriously, which made her feel somehow better. “I’ll improve. Besides, I wouldn’t want to be the asshole in Division One, would I?”

An unexpected smile broke out over her face. She looked up at him, at the teasing and honest apology that was glinting in his eyes, and said, “I think you’re safe for now.”

“Tell me if it changes,” he said, glancing away and snuffing his smoke as relief and amusement carded his voice.

“You’ll be the first to know.” There was a pause as she rolled the can around on her neck, on her sternum. The cold can was losing its chill. She sighed; a long afternoon sitting downstairs in the heat with her coworkers loomed before her. Wistfully, she contemplated her commwatch for the temperature. 

While she did, all of the idle small talk she would say to another Inspector ran through her mind: _Can’t wait to get home to my own A/C_, _wish I could be at the beach_, _we should all get Saturday off while they fix this_. But, Enforcers Kagari, Kunizuka, Masaoka, Shion, and Kogami were prisoners and still _part of her team_. 

It would devalue them. And she was not interested in that.

The can was now warm under her fingers when she ran it up and down her neck, the condensation now dwindled to almost nothing. It made its lukewarm way to her chest, again, and she was going to point out how even this can couldn’t stay cool under the punishing sun when she glanced at Kogami. 

His eyes were idly watching her neck where she had just rolled the can. A drop of condensation moved slowly down her skin. She stilled, watching his eyes follow the trail of the drop as it disappeared into the collar of her shirt. When his eyes met hers, he averted them, flustered, as he cleared his throat.

She worked to control her blush as she looked down, focusing on the scuff on the toe of one of her work shoes. It was frustrating, working with someone who was so closed off. If she was right . . . but they could never. . . . She cut herself off. Ginoza was the senior Inspector, but she knew he would brush off her questions about Kogami with a shaking head. 

“Shion said I should put in a request to take the Enforcers to the beach,” she landed on the topic to cover the sudden awkwardness.

“You let me know how Chief Kasei responds to that.” He settled into a wry look, keeping his hands busy by lighting another cigarette. “Anyway, they do need to fix it,” he said as he pocketed his lighter and brushed his hair back from his forehead. The motion accentuated the taut lines of his biceps. “Or the hounds might stage a revolt overnight.” 

“You know you won’t do that,” she spoke with certainty to combat the look of interested mischief in his eyes. A corner of his mouth turned up as he took another puff. Besides, this would mean they would have to call in the Inspectors, and that would mean... “Can you imagine waking up Ginoza to come in and put down an Enforcer revolt?”

“Yeah, well,” Kogami grumbled, “he could do with some awake time.”

The strained tension between them had been there this whole time. Maybe it was the detective in her that spurred her next question. Or maybe she couldn’t let it go, once she’d caught the scent. “You’ve known him for a while, haven’t you?”

His cigarette held between two fingers on his right hand as he cocked his head. The look in his eyes was lidded. “Aren’t you on your break?”

“That’s a fair response,” she said. “Well,” her fingers popped the tab on the soda, “I’m headed back downstairs.” The fizz from the can was sweet against her mouth as she took a long, welcomed drink. “See you later.” 

A dozen steps away and Kogami’s voice called out, “High school.”

She turned, her eyebrows raised.

“I’ve known him since high school.” Kogami watched her.

“I didn’t know that,” she said. It would be in their files, she guessed, but it was better to have one of them tell her than for her to dig. It was an act of . . . faith. Then, assuredly, “If you want to, I’d like to hear about it sometime.”

“Stay cool, Tsunemori.” The look on his face was amused, but--no, there was something else there . . . a _yearning_\--as he watched her leave. The weight of his gaze stayed with her until she went into the elevator, and took it downwards, returning to work.

**Author's Note:**

> _see I've already waited too long_   
_and all my hope is gone_


End file.
